{"id":2289,"date":"2015-05-29T18:03:37","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T18:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stroudcivicsociety.co.uk\/wp\/?p=2289"},"modified":"2015-05-29T18:03:37","modified_gmt":"2015-05-29T18:03:37","slug":"gloucester-motorway-services-food-community-sustainability-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stroudcivicsociety.co.uk\/home\/2015\/05\/29\/gloucester-motorway-services-food-community-sustainability-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Gloucester Motorway Services: Food, Community, Sustainability, Society"},"content":{"rendered":"
A report on Stroud Civic Society's talk on 22nd January 2015<\/pre>\n
\"Gloucester<\/a>
Gloucester Services - interior - view through servery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
It was a full house at Stroud\u2019s Old Town Hall in the Shambles on Thursday 22nd January as people crowded inside to hear an illustrated talk about the new service station on the M5. Certainly, we were offered three speakers for the price of one, and the atmosphere at Stroud Civic Society meetings is always warm, but such interest in a motorway service area\u2014it all seemed a bit odd!<\/p>\n
However, chatter ceased as Juliet Shipman, chair of the Civic Society greeted us before calling on Tim Mars to introduce the first speaker, Mark Gale, Chief Executive of Gloucestershire Gateway Trust.<\/p>\n
Based in the Matson area of Gloucester\u2014one of the poorest areas in Gloucestershire and in the top five percent of most disadvantaged communities in the country\u2014Mark Gale came up with the extraordinary notion of building a motorway services on the M5 immediately adjacent to Matson as a means of providing income, training and employment for local people and communities.<\/p>\n
Around 28 million vehicles a year stream past Matson on the motorway, carrying some 50 million people. Previously they came into Gloucestershire at one end and left at the other, leaving just pollution, congestion, accidents and a cost to public services, with nobody in the county benefiting. Mark\u2019s thought was: let\u2019s turn that around and make the motorway an asset for local communities. Instead of being a purely negative channel sweeping past Matson and offering nothing in return, the idea was to turn it into a positive asset for local communities by building a very special kind of service station.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a>The Trust teamed up with Westmorland, which owns and runs Tebay in the Lake District\u2014the only independent motorway services in the country\u2014to deliver this vision. Tebay is famous for the quality of its food which is predominately locally sourced, providing an invaluable outlet and income for local farmers and food suppliers. Gloucester Services goes one step further. It is unique in combining the local\/farm\/family model of Tebay with a social\/charitable\/community dimension represented by Gloucestershire Gateway Trust. It is Tebay with a twist.<\/p>\n
At the heart of the project is a commitment to supporting the surrounding communities: 300 jobs will eventually be created, the restaurant and farm shop will showcase local, artisan-made produce, and sales from the site will generate around \u00a310 million over 20 years for residents\u2019 groups and charities.<\/p>\n
A slide showed a band of smiling people poised with feet on spades to break the first sod on the site of the northbound services, demonstrating the wide range of people, community groups and organisations which came together to push forward the motorway services project. From these groups, Mark explained, had already come a furniture recycling project and a plethora of training initiatives of all kinds.<\/p>\n
After loud applause for Mark, Sarah Dunning, Chief Executive of Westmorland\u2014which has Tebay motorway services at its heart\u2014took us back to 1967 when her parents had been a Cumbrian hill farmers rearing cattle and sheep.<\/p>\n
In a wonderful video we saw her father silhouetted against the stunning landscape of the Lake District. In between whistling to his sheepdogs, he explained the resourcefulness of a hill farmer through a Cumbrian saying that translated as: \u2018It\u2019s a bare hillside he\u2019ll cross over in which he won\u2019t find something to make use of.\u2019 So when the M6 crossed the edge of their land they set out to make use of it. A site was designated for a motorway services area and bids were invited. The Dunnings sent in their proposal\u2014and were successful.<\/p>\n
In 1972 they opened the only family-run motorway service station in the UK, a small 30-seat caf\u00e9 serving home-cooked, locally sourced food. Before long they had 28 members of staff, and with time added a hotel, truck stop, caravan site, visitors\u2019 centre and an award-winning farm shop. They are now, Sarah added proudly, welcoming two million customers a year.<\/p>\n
Sarah had always been involved in the business, but in 2005 she took over from her father as chief executive. She was looking for further ways to strengthen, develop and diversify the business when she received a call from Mark Gale asking if Westmorland would be interested in joining with Gloucestershire Gateway Trust to build and run a new service area on the M5.<\/p>\n
As a business proposition, a service area in Gloucestershire had three major things going for it:<\/p>\n